Friends
by TodayIsTuesdayToo
Summary: The gaang goes camping to celebrate the start of summer, but things don't go quite according to plan. Kataang Week 2017 Day 8: Free/AU Day


**AN:**

My Day 8 (LAST DAY, what?) submission for Kataang Week 2017. Just a short camping AU one-shot.

I really intended to post every day of this event but some crazy cool things happened for my family on Day 1 and it's been wild since then. I just got too busy, regrettably.

Remember to check out Kataang-Week on tumblr! Thank you for being with me this week!

 **Prompt:** Free/AU Day

 **Song:** _Friends_ \- Ed Sheeran

* * *

A short cry and a sharp clatter sounded from the trees.

"Sokka!" Katara called, dropping her sleeping bag and sprinting around the side of the van.

Aang set down the cooler of food he way carrying and ran after her. They came upon the sorry sight of her brother tangled in a collapsed tent. Suki was crouched at his side, her hands hovering to help but not quite sure how.

Katara doubled over laughing and Aang scratched the back of his head, amused and concerned. "You, uh, need a hand there, buddy?" he asked.

Sokka shot the three of them irritated glances and yanked in vain at the canvas. A support pole whacked him in the nose. "I'm fine," he insisted.

"Don't be stubborn, Sokka," Katara chided. The three of them helped detangle their friend while he sat with his arms crossed, pouting. Once he was free, they sent him to unpack the van while they pitched the tents.

Almost as soon as they'd finished setting up camp, a sleek black sedan slid through the trees, parking next to them. Zuko stepped out of the driver's side and opened the door behind him to let Toph out while Mai slinked out of the passenger seat.

"Hey, you found us!" Aang called as they went to greet their friends.

"It wasn't hard." Zuko greeted them with hugs. "There aren't a ton of roads to get turned around on out here."

"Quite the drive," Mai remarked, hooking her arm through boyfriend's. "You guys really meant it when you said you wanted to get out of the city."

"Well I like it here," Toph remarked. "There's too much noise in the city. Besides, if we'd gotten here any faster we'd have had help unpack."

Aang and Katara exchanged uneasy glances. It baffled them endlessly how aware their blind friend was of her surroundings, and she wasn't sharing her secret anytime soon if she had one.

"I'm just glad you're here. It's dinner time, and we couldn't get the fire started!" Sokka exclaimed. He grabbed Grill-Master Zuko by the wrist and dragged him to the fire pit, Mai in tow. The rest of them settled in around the splintering picnic table.

Aang looked over his friends warmly. The older four had just gotten back from college for the summer a week earlier. He and Katara had graduated high school the week before, him two years ahead of time. Despite living in the same neighborhood, this camping trip was the first time the seven of them had been in the same place at once since winter break.

"It's really not that hard," Zuko assured the group while he scratched his head and the haphazard pile of sticks they'd thrown into the basin. "You just gotta arrange them right. Like this, see?" He stacked them into a teepee shape and stuck some moss inside before whipping out a box of matches and lighting it almost too easily. "All right, let's give that time to catch properly," he said, placing the grill grate on top and stepping back. "So what do we have tonight? Burgers or hot dogs?"

"Burgers," Suki answered, pulling a stack of frozen patties out of the cooler beside her.

"Don't forget my tofu patties," Aang reminded her. "They should be in there near the bottom." She nodded and pulled them out too, passing the fixings to Zuko.

Toph made a gagging face. "Honestly, Aang, your whole Buddhist thing aside, I don't know how you can stomach that stuff."

Aang frowned. "It's not just a 'Buddhist thing'. It's a respect for life thing."

Sokka sauntered over. "I respect life! I respect how tasty it can be."

"Sokka, Toph, cut it out," Katara scolded. "Aang doesn't judge you for what you eat, so why can't you leave him alone?"

"Look, salads and stuff I get, but tofu is just… it's unnatural," Sokka's words trailed off with a horrified look on his face.

"It's just soy," Aang countered, starting to feel a little upset by their comments.

"Just cause it's not meat doesn't mean it's unnatural," Katara put a calming hand over his, except her touch always had the opposite effect of calming him. "Hey, Zuko," she called. "Can you put on another tofu patty for me, please?"

The grill-master gave her a curious look but nodded and threw one on the grill.

Toph exchanged a glance with Sokka (again, unsettling Aang and Katara with her ability to give a glance) but they let the subject drop, for which Aang was grateful.

After they'd thoroughly gorged themselves on burgers and marshmallows and played a few intense rounds of Egyptian Ratscrew, the gang started to prep for bed.

Aang settled by the fire after changing into his pajamas, propping himself against a log and sticking his bare feet close to the flames to warm them

Sokka groaned from the other side of the campfire. His head was Suki's lap and she stroked his hair while he clutched his stomach. "Rrrnnngghh…" he moaned. "I think I ate too much."

"You really gotta learn to pace yourself, honey," Suki sighed.

"Call it karmic justice for Aang a hard time about his diet," Katara quipped as she climbed out of the tent in sweats and a tank top. Aang tried not to stare. He liked her best like this, when she was dressed down but still managed to be effortlessly cute. His best friend settled in the earth next to him.

Toph laughed. "If that's the case, then justice is sweet." She looked equally uncomfortable, but unwaveringly self-satisfied.

"Hey, there are far worse problems to have than being too full," Sokka responded. "I'll take my suffering like a man."

Suki and Katara shared a sarcastic look.

Katara rubbed her arms before sticking her hands closer to the flames. "Man, it's cold up here for June. I didn't think I would need a sweatshirt, but that was a mistake."

"You can wear mine," Aang offered almost too eagerly. "I'm not cold," he half-lied as he pulled it over his head and handed to her.

"Thanks, Aang." She gave him a smile warm enough to turn his lie into the truth. "Here, you messed up your beanie." She leaned forward to pull his favorite beanie – black with a blow arrow down the front – back over his short, brunette hair. He could have sworn her fingers lingered as they brushed back down his face, but he was just as sure that he'd imagined it.

Toph jumped to her feet at that moment, pulling Aang out of his daydreams, and sprinted into the woods.

"Toph!" Zuko called after her. "Where are you going?" There was no answer. They gave each other confused looks. They knew better than to worry about her wandering off on her own, but this was still odd. "I'll go see what's going on."

Aang frowned, but Katara snuggling up to him for warmth quickly drew his attention back. He looped an arm around her shoulders and rubbed her arms and his excuse.

Zuko returned after a minute with Toph leaning on him heavily. She looked as green as her shirt.

"You okay, Toph?" Katara straightened herself, to Aang's disappointment.

Toph shook her head. "Bad burgers…" she managed to grumble out.

"I'd like it on the record that this is no fault of my cooking," Zuko noted. "That said, I'm going to take her back to the city. If it gets worse, we won't be able to help her here."

Katara frowned. "You shouldn't have to go, Zuko. I can take her."

Zuko shook his head. "Honestly, I'm feeling a little nauseous myself. If it's food poisoning, I want to be home when it hits."

"I'll come too." Mai stood and went to help Toph to the car. "I'm sure this is fun for you guys, but I don't think camping is for me. We can hang out when you all get home."

Suki nodded. "Fair enough." She looked down to her boyfriend who was practically curled into a ball in her lap. "Do you think you might be sick?"

Sokka scoffed. "Me? Sick? No, never. I don't get sick."

There was an unspoken understanding that no one agreed with his assessment, but it'd be more of a hassle to push the issue with him.

The three of them got in the car with Mai driving and took off back toward town.

Suki helped Sokka to his feet. "Come on, we should get to bed. If there was a bug in those burgers, Aand and Katara should be safe, but you and I will need our rest just in case."

Aang reluctantly left Katara's side and went to help Sokka into the guys' tent. They settled into their sleeping bags and he did the best to shut out his friend's moaning and fall asleep.

Maybe an hour later, Aang awoke to the sound of aggressive vomiting, followed by a whimpered, "Aw… My shoe…"

He rolled over to see Sokka doubled over his boot, the apparent receptacle for the anarchy in his stomach. Aang grimaced, holding down his own gag reflex at the sight. "Suki!" He called, then turned back to his friend. "Come on, let's get you outside."

There was a shuffling sound across the campsite and the girls emerged from their tent just as Aang was laying Sokka out on the bench of the table. "It's the burgers," he confirmed to them and they looked on with worried faces. "I'm going to take him back home. Will you girls be okay here alone, or do you want to break down camp now and head back early?"

Suki shook her head. "Don't worry about it, Aang. I can take him home myself. If he's this far gone then it's only a matter of time before the bug gets me too."

"Yeah, I don't want to wait for you guys to pack up. No offense," Sokka grumbled. "I'll send Dad to come back you guys in the morning."

Katara frowned. "Are you sure? I feel like we should come with you."

Suki nodded. "We'll be fine. I just feel bad leaving you without a car. There's no cell service out here, but there should be a phone at that little store down the road if you two need anything."

"Don't worry about us," Aang reassured her. "You just take care of Sokka. And yourself." He gave her a hug and helped her get her one-shoed boyfriend to the van.

And then there were two.

Aang scratched his head. "Well… I guess we should go back to sleep. Swimming in the river first thing tomorrow?" She loved me swimming. He loved watching her do the things she loved.

Katara nodded. "Yeah, sounds great. Goodnight, Aang." She turned back to her tent and he turned back to his. "Wait," she said suddenly, and they both stopped in their tracks. "It's um… It's awfully cold tonight. And this tent is too big for me to keep warm on my own…"

He tried the keep his eager smile under wraps. "Right behind you." He ran to grab his sleeping bag and was right on her heels.

Then tent was made to sleep four or five, and it looked massive with just Katara's things in it. He laid out his bag next to hers and they zipped themselves in. They laid awake for a few minutes, watching the stars through the mesh roof.

"So much for our camping reunion, huh?" Katara sighed, breaking the silence.

"Yeah…" Aang sighed his agreement. "I mean, it was nice to have everyone in one place, for the time that we did."

"Well, this isn't so bad either, is it?" She asked. "Just the two of us? We do well enough while they're all at college without us."

He smiled broadly and rolled over to face her. "It was just the two of us this whole winter. Let's just look at this as us spending one more day together before we spend all summer with them." Alone time sounded nice enough to him.

Katara smiled back. "Okay. Sounds like a plan." She yawned.

"Get some sleep. Swimming in the morning."

"Swimming… Yay…" She closed her eyes with a light grin on her lips. He did the same

About ten minutes past, and he was just about to fall asleep when she put a hand on his shoulder. "Aang? You awake?"

"'Just a bit," he grumbled softly. "What's up?"

"I'm still kinda cold."

His brain was a little foggy. "Uh… Okay? Do you want a blanket?"

"My blanket was in the van…"

He blinked his eyes open. Hers were downcast and she was nibbling on her lower lip, looking uncertain.

"Can we…" she started. "Can we put our sleeping bags together?"

His brain took a minute to process what she was asking. When it did, he shot upright. His head swam, but he went to work unzipping his bag without a word. She did the same. They laid out hers like a mattress and threw his over the top of them like a blanket. When they were settled, she crawled into his arms, shivering. He did his best to wrap himself around her, willing his body heat to transfer itself to hers. Soon the tremors in her limbs calmed and she let out a satisfied sigh. He stroked her arms tenderly and stared at the mesh roof, trying to quell the fluttering in his chest that he knew she must be able to hear, with her head cradled against his chest. Her hand absently traced the collar of his shirt, and the motion threatened to monopolize his thoughts entirely.

He knew her aim in getting closer was to get comfortable enough to sleep, but he was more alert than he'd been all day. They had been close since the very day he'd moved to her neighborhood at the age of 12. They'd been plenty cuddly in the past four years, but this was the first time they'd gotten this intertwined. The air around them seemed alive in a way it never had before. This was the closest he'd come to expressing his deeply entrenched love for his best friend.

He pulled her in even tighter and buried his head in her hair. She seemed to respond to this, wrapping an arm around him and winding her legs through his. What space there was between them seemed to vanish in a moment.

"Aang?" she spoke after a moment. Her voice was shaky.

"Yeah, Katara?"

"I um… I know we're going to college next year, and even though we'll be at the same school, I know a lot changes after high school, so I've just got to tell you..."

His burning blood froze in his veins. "Tell me what?"

She tucked her head into his chest, as though she were confessing her words straight to his heart. "After the others left for school… Things changed with us. And I know you noticed it, too." She looked up, finding his eyes. "Aang… I think I've been falling in love with you for a very long time."

His jaw went slack and he suddenly couldn't find the words he'd been dying to say since they were freshmen.

The expression on her face crumpled and she hid against his shirt. "I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry. Forget I said that."

He came to at that moment and pulled her up into a sitting position. "Katara… look at me." He placed his fingers under her chin and pulled it up so he could look her in the eye. "I _know_ that I've been falling in love with you for four years." The hand under her chin moved into her hair and pulled her into a kiss that he imagined heated the whole tent.

She pulled back after a moment and gave him a joyful but mildly confused look. "Four years? How did you keep that so close to your chest that whole time? I was so sure you didn't feel that way about me."

He laughed. "I kept it so close cause I didn't think you felt that way about me. I couldn't bear the thought of ruining this and losing you as my friend."

Katara gave a frustrated sigh. "Still though, that's impressive. I was thinking the same thing, and I could still only keep my mouth shut for a couple of months."

He smiled warmly and brushed her hair behind your ear. "I wish you hadn't," he teased.

"Well if I could have known you'd react this way, I wouldn't have." She leaned in and kissed him again.

He pulled back this time. "Hey, I know you're worried about next year, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. In the meantime," he laced his fingers through hers. "we take each step toward it together."

She gripped his hand and smiled. "Together,' she agreed.


End file.
